On the way to our goals, we often find ourselves lost.
Sometimes we get stuck, and we stop progressing like we were in the past.
Here’s a framework I use to get myself unstuck and moving again.
Let me ask you a question: is this girl moving?
Sure, you see her body moving, but is she actually going anywhere?
What about now?
Now you can actually see the truth.
Motion means nothing without a reference point.
The forest in the background acts as a reference point, allowing you to judge whether she’s
actually going somewhere.
Step 1 of getting unstuck is to choose a key metric.
It will act as a reference point, allowing you to judge whether you’re actually making
any progress towards your goal.
If you’re focused on your health, some metrics you might measure are your weight, your body
fat percentage, the time it takes you to run a mile, or the amount of calories you consume
in a day.
If you’re focused on productivity, you might measure the number of pages you write, the
number of hours you practice your craft, or the number of works you produce.
I find that a good metric has the following traits: it’s very specific, it’s easy
to objectively measure, and a change in the metric indicates progress towards or away
from my goal.
For example, if I want to become a better basketball player, I might measure the amount
of points I score per game.
Points are specific, easily and objectively measurable, and they’re one obvious way
to see whether I’m becoming a better player.
Step 2 of getting unstuck is to create a process that affects my key metric.
A process is just a set of actions that I perform to try and reach my goal.
For example, if I’m trying to get better at basketball, I might practice my ball-handling
for fifteen minutes a day, then my three-pointers, then my free throws, and then my lay-ups.
This makes up an hour long practice session.
Now how do I know if my process is any good?
This is where the metric comes back in.
Let’s say I’m measuring my points per game.
If my process is any good, then I should see the metric moving up.
I find that the best processes cost the least amount of energy but produce the greatest
changes in our metric.
Or in other words, if our process is a machine, the best one produces the greatest output
for the least amount of input—the greatest results for the least energy.
The best way to improve a process is through knowledge.
Knowledge allows us to swap out the actions in our process for better ones, so that it
produces more results for less energy.
The best place to get knowledge is from people who have already done something similar to
what you’re trying to do.
In our basketball example, that’s probably a coach.
But you might learn from books, other writers, artists, painters, film directors, musicians,
and so on.
The point is to find someone whose process you can imitate until you find the best one
for yourself.
The third step to getting unstuck is to manage your energy.
You can think of yourself like a video game character, having an energy bar that runs
out by the end of the day.
Of course, taking care of yourself with good sleeping and eating habits keeps the energy
bar nice and full.
But even then, you still have a limited amount of energy that you can use in a day, so you
have to learn to use it effectively.
Each action in a process costs a certain amount of energy.
To make a process more efficient, you can lower the energy cost of each action.
How do you do this?
By improving your strength.
We’ll discuss three different kinds of strength: physical, psychological, and technological.
The first is physical.
By having a stronger body, you’ll expend less energy doing things.
Your body is just more efficient.
The second is psychological strength.
If, for example, you write everyday and practice the basics of grammar and language, you’ll
make them unconscious habits, and unconscious habits require less energy to act out.
This goes for basketball too.
If you make the basics unconscious—such as ball handling and your shooting form—you’ll
expend less energy doing them.
And lastly, there is technological strength.
For example, if you use a computer to type, you’ll use less energy writing up a page
than if you did it by hand.
Improving your strength allows you to expend less energy when you perform your process.
So here’s a summary of the framework I use to get unstuck.
I start by picking a goal.
I need to know where I wanna go.
Then I pick a key metric, and I ask myself if the metric is specific, easy to objectively
measure, and representative of true progress towards my goal.
If it doesn’t meet this criteria, I need to pick a new one.
Once I’ve selected a good metric, I create a process that affects it.
I write down my process, act it out, and watch how it affects the metric.
Then I get knowledge from experts to alter my process so that it produces greater results
for less energy.
And lastly, I manage my energy.
I try to eat and sleep better to keep my energy bar nice and full.
I ask myself if I have the energy for a new goal or process, and where is the best investment
for my energy right now.
Then I try to make my energy expenditure as little as possible by working on my physical,
psychological, and technological strength.
So that’s the framework I currently use when troubleshooting how to get unstuck.
Hopefully it’s useful to you.
Take what works, discard what doesn’t, and make it your own.